Tag Archives: trust

What happened in Brussels today was shocking, sadly predictable and totally useless act of violence. My thoughts are with victims and their families!…

Luckily for myself neither my family nor my friends were directly affected but nonetheless I guess I won’t exaggerate if I say that it left all of us in the state of deep shock. My husband was in Brussels airport couple of days ago, my good friend lives in the stone throw from Maelbeek metro station and takes it on the regular basis… Those people who died today (or any other day before) were just people like you and I; they were mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, brother and sisters, husbands and wives. They had hopes and dreams and plans for Easter vacations…

When horrible things like that happen somewhere in the world, I empathize with those who suffered but let’s be honest there is less fear as “it could not have been me”. And then suddenly it strikes right next to you and you understand not just at the level of your brain and heart but with every single cell of your body that IT.COULD.HAVE.BEEN.ME. And then the tenacious, overwhelming, paralyzing fear gets to you. But we simply ought to shake that fear off, as that’s not the idea! If we fear, they win. If we rage, they win. If we change who we are, they win. They don’t deserve to win!!!

All the recent gruesome events made me think about how I want my kids to see this world. Yes, the first emotional reaction is fear and rage and blaming, but it is very wrong. Of course, one has to be realistic and vigilant when there is danger. However, what I don’t want for my kids is to grow up fearing this world. I don’t want my kids to spread hatred. I don’t want my kids to see people by definition as being bad. People are wonderful! Did you see what was happening on Twitter today after the attacks? People were immediately offering help, shelter, support (#ikwilhelpen). Taxi drivers in Brussels spontaneously started offering free rides. People were lining up to donate blood. I saw hundreds of offers to drive, pick up kids and so on in my Facebook feed. The same was happening in November in Paris. People are in general helpful and supportive! People are in general genuinely good! And I want to trust people. And I want my kids to trust people and not be scared of everyone they don’t know. I want my kids to be free of prejudice, judging, dividing, hatred, making false assumptions and labeling others. I want my kids to see the beauty and kindness of others and be kind themselves.

These are my values, these are our values and they are worth standing for.